Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:18 pm on 26th January 2023.
I echo the concerns expressed by the Chair of the Defence Committee, Mr Ellwood, about the state of our land forces. It is vital that this is addressed in the context of the refresh of the integrated review. May I also echo the sentiment expressed by the Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, Sir Julian Lewis, about the resourcing of all of this? Although providing this capability is the right thing to do, it will come at some cost and with some undermining of our defence capability. Will the Minister reiterate the point that I think he made just a moment ago that the costs will fall on the Treasury, and that the cost of deploying this additional capability will not fall on an already stretched MOD budget?